Abduction

Rating:
Summary: Terrible book with a terrible ending!!
Review: I, too, have read all of Robin Cook's books and always look forward to each new book with great anticipation. I was so very disappointed in this book. Reviewers like Chuck Hickey might put me in the "It's not Mr. Cooks typical medical thriller so I don't like it" box, but that is not true. One of his early works, "Sphinx" was not a medical thriller, and I loved that book. The problem with this book was that it was very boring, not suspenseful, and definintely NOT a thriller like his previous books. The only reason I kept reading was I was sure it would get better, but it never did. The ending was a horrible dispappointment! I wasted my money and time on this book!

Rating:
Summary: First Cook novel
Review: This was my first Cook novel,having depleted my favorite authors my wife insisted I give Cook a try.To her defense she has not read this one yet.I will go back and read his medical thrillers.I hear they are great.But this was awful,I have never quit a book after starting one and was determined to finish this one.And that is the only reason I was up late reading this one.The ending I dont have a problem with, it is that no one seemed to be punished for crimes committed and some punished for no crimes committed.I dont mind an ending that stirs controversy but jeez come on,give us something. I would like to hear what Cook had in mind when he wrote this novel.And if it is a earlier work,just released.Several things make no sense such as why abduct the divers when all they wanted was the woman.And Mr.Cook should meet some military vets,because while the two divers are not completely impossible the retired vet was way off base.I served as did my father and an officer as most vets can leave it behind once retired.

Rating:
Summary: Idiotic...
Review: This is the first Robin Cook book I've ever read (listened to, really). I know he's better known for his medical stories and based on this "science fiction" story, he should get back to his forte. This book is poor on every count. All the characters are idiots. If they weren't, the story couldn't have been written at all. Somehow the 5 main characters have made it through their lives with reading a single science fiction book, watching a single science fiction movie or TV show, or even knowing anyone who has. Otherwise they would have seen every trite plot point coming 50 pages away. There isn't a single original thought in the entire book. Really, I mean it. And then, in the middle of this amazingly juvenile book, he drops random polysyllabic words as though to say, "see, I haven't lost my perspicacity!"

Based on his reputation, I'm sure some of his books are great. Too bad this isn't one of them.

Rating:
Summary: Travesty
Review: Good Lord this was a stinker. Poorly conceived, clumsily executed, this book is stocked with the most generic group of explorers and aliens ever assembled. There's the Earnest Blonde, the Deep-Voiced Samuel Jackson Rip-Off, the Thuggish Navy Seals... And as for the Atlanteans, not since 'Santa Claus Conquers the Martians' has there been such an inept portrayal of an alien race. And on top of that, the dialogue is stilted, and the narration reads like it's been translated from a foreign language. But the saddest thing of all is that for all the fantastic setting and exotic background, the 'wonders' that await us in this undersea world are stunningly banal. It's all been done before with so much more ingenuity and class, that one is tempted to suspect that this Brand New Robin Cook Novel is actually a Very Very Old Robin Cook Novel; something he penned when 'The Man From Atlantis' was all the rage, and dusted off after watching Michael Crichton's 'Sphere.'

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, boring.
Review: Can this book really have been written by the Robin Cook, whose previous books I have thoroughly enjoyed? The beginning of the story caught my attention, but soon dropped to readying quickly to get it over with. I sincerely hope that Mr. Cook will return to what he does best: writting medical fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Taking the road less traveled
Review: One of the things that I find is that when someone has either a favorite author or has read several of one authors books they tend to place him or her in a box. Dr. Cook writes, and I have read only one, medical books, and he is good at it. He's a doctor after all. We tend to expect a certain type or style from an author. It is why we read them, we know what they write about. Toni Morrison, Clive Cussler, and many other well know writers write in a style that we know about before we pick up the book. When an author strays from the well known path that people expect they sometimes get upset because the image that they receive back from the mirror doesn't match what they expected. I bought this book because it was bombed by several people who stated right off the bat that they were fans or had read much if not everything Cook had written. I give Dr Cook a big atta-boy for this book. He's in a brave new world with his writting. Sure its weak in spots and predictable in others, but I enjoyed it for I wasn't hung up on past books by him. If you can read a book without presupposed ideas it can be enjoyed. I liked the ending and thought it was an original twist. To the fans of Robin Cook I say, "don't worry, he'll be back." And to people who haven't read him I say, "sit back and enjoy the story, it's lite and fun to read." Life is too long and hard to spend most of the trip looking for the ruts!

Rating:
Summary: Cook should stick to what he knows best
Review: Having read and loved many of Robin Cook's previous novels, I expected to be pleased with this long awaited book. The fact that it came out in paperback instead of hardback was a surprise at the time. Having read the book, I'm wondering why they wasted the paper? I was very disappointed in the storyline. It dragged on and on, and all I could think was that Robin was into his second childhood. Having reached the end of the book (I was given permission to stop reading it by more than one person), I feel like I've just completed a marathon. Robin needs to get back to what he knows best, and stay away from the "abduction/ alien/X-files" type novels. Hopefully, Shock will be better than this one, otherwise I'm giving up on his books. (Amazon requires a star rating. I'd rather not put even one star on this book.)

Rating:
Summary: Good start but where is the end.
Review: I have read most of Robin Cook's previous novels and was prepared to enjoy this one. The beginning grabed my interest but when he got his characters in to the center of the Earth it all goes to pieces. Lots of loose ends. If all they wanted a professional oceanographer why did they abduct the two divers? It they were as advanced as infered, they should have been able to solve the problem on their own. The two divers were totally over the top. Their actions were not consistent with their situation. If I were a Navy Diver I would be offended by these two characters. Then there is the end? The book doesn't end. I kept looking for another chapter or at least a few more pages. So many unanswered questions. Robin Cook has done better.

Rating:
Summary: Cook seems to realize here that Crichton is also a doc...
Review: ...but that doesn't mean he always has to put them in the starring role. Over the past 10 years or so, Cook has been writing about doctors on crusades against all sorts of evils, drug companies who brainwash doctors into using their stuff, corrupt hospital administrations who turn organ donations into a racket, HMOs--you name it. It's made his writing sound more manifesto than story at times. Now comes a breath of fresh air--a bona-fide S-F adventure that may be a bit derivative of "Sphere" or an undersea "Planet Of the Apes", but is not too bad for all that. You gotta give the guy credit for taking the broken record off the turntable. A group of marine scientists right out of early Cussler by way of Verne discovers a human civilization below the ocean floor that is more evolved than the one we live in. Now they're stuck: "We wanna go home"--"But you can't. We can't afford to let our secret get out." In my opinion, though, the only really big flaw in this book is the way Cook depicts the two divers who are former Navy enlisted men--vulgar, immature, mean-spirited. Both men are cut from the same mold. It smacks of the standard bourgeois prejudice against "the Great Unwashed". As a blue collar type who gets dirt under my fingernails myself, I have to wonder if Cook is really that much of an elitist. I've been entertained by his work for a whole heap o' years--now I'm thinking that I'm lucky not to know him personally.

Rating:
Summary: Skip it !
Review: This novel begins and ends like a first-rate marine adventure, but the 90 percent in between isn't much worth the time it takes to read. The principals are abducted into a Utopian undersea society, at which point the story becomes a plagiarism of Aldous Huxley's classic 1932 novel "Brave New World". I'd advise reading the Huxley and skipping this one!!